(Bloomberg) -- One of the first judges to put the brakes on President Donald Trump's immigration agenda could very well do it again before Christmas.
U.S. District Judge James Robart questioned the government's claim that its latest refugee ban isn't meant to be indefinite and indicated at a hearing in Seattle Thursday that he'll block the policy.
Robart said he couldn't take it on faith that the government's goal is to suspend refugee admissions from 11 countries for just 90 days, “when there just aren't any assurances” that the policy won't remain in place forever. After joking that his wife preferred he avoid sports analogies, Robart likened the government's argument to a losing team's refrain: “If we just had one more minute, we would've won the game.”
The veteran jurist was dubbed a “so-called judge” in a tweet by Trump in February after he issued a “ridiculous” ruling, later upheld by an appeals court, blocking the president's initial travel ban.
Robart said he hopes to issue a written decision by Dec. 25.
To contact the reporters on this story: Alexandria Arnold in Seattle at abaca3@bloomberg.net, Kartikay Mehrotra in San Francisco at kmehrotra2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg
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